Bloody Roses
by FullMentalPanic
Summary: The Volturi get schooled in awesomeness by several characters with non-Twilightish tendencies. Appearances, if you don't want it to be a surprise, from "Vampire Knight", "Chibi Vampire", and "Dracula".


**Bloody Roses**

By FullMentalPanic

Crimson eyes flicked around the stage of his gambit, a circular chamber naturally lit by high, narrow windows. The court was well ordered, just what he would expect at this point in the game, but like most players they had moved their pawns too far and were now letting in a few intruders…so cocky.

"Do you take a fancy to our abode, master pureblood?" The chief puppeteer queried. Aro, so they called him.

"Fair, but I wouldn't expect dealings of the dark to let in so much light."

Aro chuckled warmly. His companions remained impassive. "Our most sincere apologies if we're trying your tender senses. We who are undamaged by the sun choose to enjoy its brilliance." He extended a hand into a shaft of light. Brilliant indeed, the light shattered on the white skin and reflected back on the stone walls. After a moment of this display, Aro retracted his hand and mused, "Perhaps you'd like to expound on your impressions of our family, young Kaname?"

Kuran Kaname smiled, shifting his eyes to the supporting cast. Grouped around the three chairs at the far wall, were four females and three males, two clearly adolescent; bodyguards, but nothing more. They wouldn't cause much trouble. The other two of the ruling trio, Caius and Marcus, were the only others worth the bother of name recall.

Their appearance was passable.

"I would savor nothing more than to assess the merit of the Volturi," Kaname said mildly.

Caius bristled, "You presume to judge us? One who is diminished by the presence of the sun?"

"Come now, Caius," soothed Aro. "Kaname cannot help his weakness. We must make allowances for those of less soundly constructed backgrounds."

Kaname inclined his head, "Your condescension has been marked. Is there anything else you wish to add before I begin?"

"The investigation you mentioned? I hope it proves profitable."

"The investigation is complete. I was giving a last opportunity to modify my opinion."

Aro looked delightfully amused. "Oh surely we're beyond all pretenses, do indulge us with your uninfluenced opinion."

"I'd like to discuss…your menu."

"Surely you're not put out that we haven't offered you any refreshment? I do sympathize with the appetites of youth, but we're quite convivial in our dining habits. Meals are presented only communally. You won't have to wait long though."

"I'm concerned you're biting off more than you can chew."

Caius' eyes flashed, "Maintaining our glory requires generous courses. I assure you, our repasts only adequately satisfy us."

"Entirely consumed?"

"Of course," Caius smirked. "We're tidy."

"Gluttony."

"Pardon?" Aro furrowed his brow pleasantly.

"Five days ago your meal consisted of forty-two. Today you dine again."

"It is tourist season."

"Three years ago the owner of a popular restaurant line in Germany vacationed in Volterra. He hasn't been heard from since. He was socially unattached and his managers dealt with his absence after making only mild inquiries." Caius began to mutter, but Kaname held up a silencing finger and continued, "Two years ago three Portuguese exchange students attended the St. Marcus celebration and subsequently failed to report to their chaperone. The school, not to mention their relatives, were and still are intensely curious concerning their whereabouts. Last year, a Canadian couple touring the Mediterranean never returned to their family. Their considerable network of kinsmen are still actively searching for them."

"Kaname, dear, do you expect us to run a background check on everyone who walks through those doors?" said Aro condescendingly brushing back his dark hair.

Kaname looked at him levelly and brushed back a strand of his own dark hair. "For someone so concerned with maintaining a clandestine existence you're remarkably foolhardy. My examples thus far were the ones that drew comparatively minor interest. Five days ago the Deputy President of South Africa, along with his two bodyguards, was touring the historical landmarks of Italy. Two days ago he failed to appear at a scheduled press conference in Naples."

"Deputy presidents are the equivalent of vice presidents. No one remembers them."

"The President of South Africa disagrees."

"And this 'foolhardiness', is that truly what irks you about us, Kaname?"

"Mainly it's because _I_ didn't approve it."

"We do operate outside of your jurisdiction, young one. There's no need for you to feel any responsibility."

"If I am at all inclined to preserve that secrecy you allegedly treasure, I need to eliminate the loose ends."

The smallest bodyguard narrowed her eyes, and the rest of the gaggle looked markedly annoyed.

Marcus looked bored.

Aro appeared like he was trying not to giggle. "How upsetting. Really though, I feel irritable myself when I have to function on an empty stomach." The echo of approaching feet trickled into the chamber. "I'm certain we'll all be feeling ever so much more affable after lunch."

"I prefer more intimate dining." Kaname sidled to the edge of the room. The sharp smell of tobacco tickled his nose, and he turned to ascertain its source.

With increasing noise, a horde of reasonably attractive individuals led by one of Aro's clan was beginning to filter into the room. Varying heights and hair colors flowed into Kaname's vision, none of them immediately arresting, until he noted a flash of silver. Light hair brushed an intricate dagger motif on the figure's neck, Kaname heard the light clink of a chain that he knew shackled a weapon, and ice lavender eyes locked with hooded red ones. It was that insufferably stubborn prefect who was supposed to be guarding Yuuki.

"Dear me," said Aro. "I was so sure we requested non-smokers."

Kaname displaced his gaze once more, and found the source of the nicotine. A cigarette was casually detained in the mouth of a tall, sable haired man. One blue eye illuminated in a stray column of light, but the other was hidden beneath a studded eye patch. If it wasn't his ethics teacher.

Yagari Toga, of black hair and stylish eye patch fame, took a long and unapologetic drag. He exhaled blue smoke and fixed Aro with a slight smile.

Aro actually looked slightly miffed, but his features smoothed and he stood saying, "Welcome, guests! Everyone do come in, there's ample room for you all!"

The bodyguards fanned out, the smallest two leading each wave that crested around the perimeter of the room. The humans seemed oblivious, smiling benignly or looking politely interested. Yagari showed no sign of even being conscious of them, but his silver haired apprentice watched with death in his gaze. He wasn't the one who moved though.

A distinct click penetrated the chatter in the room. Attention focused on a Winchester rifle. A cocked Winchester.

"1894 model," said Yagari, looking oddly appeased.

The rifle wasn't locked on any of the now motionless bodyguards. It was still in steady hands, and aimed at Aro's face.

"Let them go."

A coven's worth of red eyes shifted away from the weapon itself and settled on its operator. A young man with longish mahogany hair stood straight in an ankle length coat, the likely means of smuggling in the gun. Kaname blinked lazily, security certainly was lacking.

The rest of the humans had finally noticed the arms bearer, and were rapidly giving him a wide berth. The guard remained still; ever intent on the will and caprices of the three, they would not even dispose of a threat unless their masters willed it.

"Remarkable audacity, young man," said Aro, the epitome of a gracious host. "You'll forgive me if I can't remember what we may have done to require such a forceful encounter."

"I am Johnathan Harker III," the figure said with lethal intent. "And I know what you are."

Marcus, mired in ennui, stoically tapped Aro's hand.

Aro's expression was placidly angelic. "And still you came, without even a single ally."

Kaname arched an eyebrow over the situation. The Harker descendant stood immovably, without any apparent intention of removing himself from the den of killers. Yet, for the moment, he was entirely safe. Aro adored curiosities. Persons, puzzles, and artistic anomalies had dominated his centuries, even more so than his carnal appetites, thought Kaname drily. A fragile human, who apparently didn't have a firm grasp on the measures necessary for slaying a Volturi, was not a delicacy to be hastily devoured.

"Heidi, darling." One pair of eyes detached from Johnathan and looked inquiringly at Aro. "Please escort our guests to more palatable surroundings. Exert every effort to make sure they remain undamaged." Aro smiled paternally at humans who promptly started following the guard out of the room.

With their repast postponed, the remaining guards glided back towards the dais, clearly intending to position themselves to incapacitate the ill-mannered guest the moment their master allowed it. The shielding one, never more than five feet from the trio to begin with, moved to within touching distance, placing the complacent rulers well within the bounds of her protection, as well as encompassing young Harker. For the first time the rifle wavered.

BANG

Two shots, fired so quickly in succession they merged into one sound exploded in the room. The Shield flew back, and Aro's head jerked nearly to a right angle with his shoulders.

"Stop!"

The Volturi's minions froze. Johnathan's fierce expression of satisfaction had not had time to change to anything else, still stoically triumphant even in the wrathful clutches of the guard, who were visibly trembling with the desire to tear out the various human limbs they gripped. The largest of the guards had one hand clamped around the barrel of the Winchester, the heated metal sizzled against his dreamy, marvelous, glacier cool skin. Not even looking at their prisoner, every one of the Volturi protectors had their eyes on the two figures who hadn't left the room with the rest of the meal.

Smoke curled from the business end of the gun held stalwartly in the hand of the light haired precinct. His air, if not his face, was almost smug. At least until Yagari smacked him upside the head.

"Stupid apprentice," said Yagari. "I didn't tell you to fire."

"Sorry, master," said the student, apparently not at all resentful of the gigantic goose egg that could already be seen emerging from the back of his head. Kaname smirked.

"Well, I can certainly say I wasn't expecting that!" came a positively gleeful voice from the dais.

Aro, his head still hanging back past his shoulders, reached up and grasped his head. His neck flexed, and with the help of his hands, clearly applying pressure, he brought his head back into view. A crack, like a crumbling fissure in granite, ran from the exact center of his forehead up to his hairline and down to the bridge of his nose. Perpendicular to this line, his mouth spread into the widest smile Aro had exerted himself to in years.

"Do you know," he said keeping his hands in place as Kaname watched the inorganic restitching of Aro's flesh. "I had almost forgotten what pain felt like. I do believe the last time I experienced anything like this sensation was when I asked Jane to personally demonstrate how her powers worked. What say you we keep this one, at least for awhile." Aro grinned, and turned from Johnathan's stricken face to gauge the reaction of his associates in power. In so doing, his eyes swept over a bare place in his guard.

Aro paused with the closest approximation of a frown that his face ever assumed. "Renata, pet, I'm rather disappointed. Although I'm not entirely displeased to have a renewal of an old sensation, that is the first time that anyone within your range has even come close to my person, let alone been able to affect me negatively. Even so, dear, it's not becoming to run off and hide at your failure. Do make the effort to learn from your little mistake."

One of the other guards uttered a low hiss, as if the burning awareness of a certain fact had suddenly made itself too much to bear in complete silence. In the round chamber there was not a wisp of wind, not even enough to stir a new layer of fine dust.

Aro's quasi frown, morphed into a look of utter confusion. Marcus turned towards him. For the first time in an age, he didn't look merely bored. The faintest shadow of pain shone in the furthest depths of his eyes. As if the absence of a long relationship illuminated a dim mirror of his own loss. He touched Aro's hand.

"Gone?" Aro's confusion became even more profound. "How? One bullet couldn't do that, and even then nothing was burned."

Kaname raised an eyebrow at that, bringing Akatsuki along would have been a good idea after all.

"How can she be gone?" finished Aro in a decidedly petulant tone.

Kaname's other eyebrow rose to the level of the first. If these charlatans couldn't comprehend the lethal properties of the weapon of a professional Hunter...this was going to turn into an exceedingly easy errand.

A throaty communal growl began to rise from the ranks of bodyguards. They strained, like the dogs they were, at the invisible leash of their master's will; eager to drain the blood and break the bodies of the two, now most certainly unwelcome, guests at the opposite side of the chamber. Aro looked with annoyed inquiry at the shorter of the duo. The apprentice stood with hands in pockets, the only appearance of his earlier action a hip level silver chain that insured the Bloody Rose gun always stayed close to his person. Aro gave a cold chuckle and opened his mouth.

Yagari flicked the ash from his cigarette and showed Aro his teeth in a mirthless grin. "Now, Zero."

Before the words were completely free from his teacher's mouth, Kiryuu Zero's arm was already in mid-arc, lining up a bead on Aro.

"Now," said Aro.

The little female looked at Zero.

Zero's aim jerked, but downwards instead of up and away from Aro. Kiryuu was still determined to get his target even as he faltered under the pain of the tiniest guard's mental attack. Aro was hit.

Since everyone was watching they saw it; the flash of the seal that bound the ability to heal and enabled a well placed shot to be lethal. A well placed shot.

The side of Aro's left arm shattered with the sound of breaking slate. He staggered back half a step, his right hand flying to the crumbling wound that showered his robe with the dust of his body. He didn't look pleased to have the experience of pain now.

Still, it seemed Aro was the one who'd better withstood the encounter. Shaking, pale, and glaring, Zero was down, spasmodically trying line his gun up with the little bodyguard smirking at him. Kaname made a mental note. He had personally torn that boy to bleeding without seeing him even cringe. If the guard's mental assault could produce this result...it was painful. The other guards bearing down on Kiryuu were about to transfer his agony from the mental to the physical.

Kaname wondered how skilled the Volturi hounds were at splitting their attention. Across the room at a right angle to Zero, Yagari Toga had removed the pieces of his own disassembled weapon from his long coat and fitted his rifle together with an audible snap. Loud enough to be heard by the Volturi champions rushing towards his apprentice, which had been his intention. The largest of the males and the full sized female swerved towards Yagari. The smaller of the full grown males kept on towards Zero, still close to immobilized from the small female's attack. Yagari aimed at the small female.

"Jane, move!"

The call from the second smallest of the guards sent the female skittering to the other side of her under grown companion, her robes blown back from the close trajectory of the bullet. It startled Caius enough that he hunched and jumped sideways, ruining the alternate head shot that Yagari had set up in case his first target moved. The Volturi guard whipped her scalding blood eyes to find the one who had tried to harm her.

Zero moved.

The male bodyguard was on his left side and it was already too late to try to shoot him before the bodyguard was close enough to break his ribs or legs. Zero kicked, catching the body guard on the inside of his right knee. The guard's leg twisted out and he toppled towards the floor. Zero kicked again, catching the side of his assailant's face and snapping his head to the side. The Volturi grabbed Zero's ankle before he could pull his leg back and yanked him off the floor. Midair, Zero aimed the Bloody Rose at the guard's face. The guard changed his mind about slamming Zero into the far wall of the chamber and instead jerked him close and grabbed his wrist to grapple for the gun.

Yagari had been avoiding the painful gaze of the little female. Leaping backwards he kept the two guards chasing him, and their bodies between himself and the frustrated small bodyguard. The half-size figure stamped a foot in rage and suddenly the male guard chasing Yagari dropped to the floor with a scream, and the smallest female was looking down the rifled barrel of a gun. Yagari Toga fired.

The smallest male shrieked and then snapped his mouth shut as dust blew by him. The little female stumbled against him. Her fingers flew to the right side of her head where much of her face, including her right eye had been blown away. She shook, and Kaname knew that it was with anger and shame rather than pain. She yanked up the hood of her cloak pressing its folds against the injured side of her face. She threw her head back and screamed. The face of the small male drained of expression, but the red in his eyes boiled and the pupils constricted to pinpoints.

The entrance into the chamber exploded inward in a hail of debris and dirt. Noise hailed silence. Yagari whipped his rifle away from the shot he'd been lining up on the larger female and aimed at the possible new threat. The small female subsided in her shrieks to an audible grinding of teeth. Neither Zero nor his opponent released their hold, but they froze and turned their heads towards the entrance.

Dirt streamed down and dissipated into wafting dust. A contrasting light and dark figure stepped through the ethereal screen. Entirely encased in black, a man with loose, ginger blond hair wafting past his shoulders moved into the chamber. In his right hand a drawn sword, black bladed, saw edged, ghosted millimeters above the floor. He opened tawny eyes and looked at the Volturi court.

"Headmaster," gritted Zero.

Cross Kaien, headmaster of Cross Academy where Kaname, Zero, and Yagari all either attended or worked. The look of calm intensity he'd sported on entering instantly vanished.

"Zero! You didn't tell me THIS was where you were going this weekend! I told you I had a really fun vacation idea and you said you didn't have time! We could have sat together on the flight over! I was so bored, no one wanted to talk with me!" The headmaster pouted and gestured, waving his sword around in a very unprofessional manner.

At this point, the guard Zero had been wrestling surmised that the newcomer was on the enemy's side. Exploiting Zero's split attention, he shifted one hand to the neck of his opponent and smashed the back of the silver haired apprentice's head against the wall. The wall split behind Zero's head, and Zero looked happy to be distracted.

"And you," Kaien pointed his weapon dramatically at Yagari. "You haven't contacted me at all in two weeks and...oh, look there's Kaname too!" Kaien waved jovially at the Kuran legacy, and Kaname narrowed his eyes in mildly annoyed recognition.

Yagari bit down on his cigarette sharply, and darted around the perimeter of the room, trying to find an angle where he could fire at the male strangling his apprentice without hitting Zero. The female guard leaped after him, aiming at his legs. Yagari dove and rolled, coming up in a spinning crouch, he fired at his would be tackler, but she was already gone.

Aro apparently felt that the hospitality of his house was being besmirched. "Our newest guest," he said in a voice almost identical in cordiality to his address to the tourists. Kaien turned towards him with a pleasant expression.

"I am ashamed that you had no one to escort you to our presence. Heidi is usually so conscientious about those details."

The large bodyguard had recovered, and he ran for Yagari as the female guard executed a leap that would deposit her right on top of the sable haired gunman. Yagari braced a hand on the floor and kicked straight up, catching the female under the chin and launching her into the onrushing male. They clattered together like a rock slide and sprawled on the floor.

"Oh, her," Kaien waved his left hand dismissively. "She didn't want me to come in."

Zero was struggling to keep his gun out of his adversary's grasp. He had both his feet braced against the guard's hip and stomach and had been able to push him back enough to allow some shallow breathing. He grabbed and yanked back sharply on the sentry's thumb, breaking the hold around his neck. The Volturi protector used the dislodged hand to grab a fistful of the right side of Zero's collar and pressed his forearm against Zero's throat.

Aro smiled, his voice had all the warmth of a tomb, "Really? How did you cope with such an inconvenience?"

Yagari fired at the combined mass of the two fallen guards, but they had split apart as soon as they hit the floor. Still they stayed very close to the perimeter of the room. Excepting the two short ones and the trio, the attacking sentinels were treating the area in front of the dais as if it was quarantined. No one was restraining Johnathan Harker, but he stood utterly still, his Winchester tightly gripped, and did nothing.

Kaien elegantly flicked his black sword to the side. "I killed her." His shoulders went back and he bowed without breaking eye contact; all courtesy dropped from him like a cloak cast aside, "And now I'm going to kill you."

Caius growled, taking a step forward.

Zero inhaled strenuously. There wasn't enough pressure to make breathing impossible, but it was certainly inhibiting. Now his antagonist had a hold that he couldn't dislodge. Zero pushed harder with his legs, pressing his contender just a little further back, and insuring that his own lower limbs were well off the floor. Yagari glanced over and fired twice, hitting the guard behind both knees. Zero's assailant gasped as his legs from the knees down shattered. He fell. Zero shifted, slipping his neck free, but the guard still maintained his hold on Zero's gun hand, taking it to the ground.

Kaname remembered that Yagari's rifle carried five rounds.

Caius hissed and sputtered, his aggravation making his words flow fast and unintelligible.

"Indeed," said Aro, as if Caius had been perfectly eloquent. "Death may be presented in such a way that in all appearances it is a gift. I think that is how we will serve it to you."

"I think not," said Kaien.

Yagari leaped up, avoiding the two guards as they passed under him. He looked up, and there was Kaien. Locking forearms at the apex of the jump, Kaien hauled Yagari up several more feet to one of the narrow windows lighting the Volturi court. Yagari hooked a leg through the window, the other braced on the inner wall of the chamber.

The ground wasn't a good place to be anymore. Kaname wasn't entirely sure what it did yet, but spreading out from the smallest male was a mist like substance. It hadn't encroached on the dais, but it was nearly to the walls of the rest of the room. Johnathan Harker was completely surrounded by the curious fog; it had rolled over him in wispy, transparent folds, and he wasn't moving. As the rest of the guards were avoiding the mist, Kaname concluded it was a prudent course of action to follow. Kaname surveyed the high walls of the chamber and chose a spot near the ceiling above the entrance. Caving before his will, the stone shattered discreetly in a four by four inch space. Kaname leaped lightly and secured his new handhold. He wasn't ready to leave just yet.

The guard Zero had been grappling had fallen with his back to the encroaching mist. With both hands, the bodyguard held Zero's gun arm almost entirely flush with the floor, keeping Zero close enough and at an angle where he couldn't use his other arm and legs effectively. The guard tightened his grip, his fingers grated against the floor making shallow grooves in the stone. The visible skin at Zero's wrist burst into red, purple bruises under the guard's hand. Kaname heard the creak and strain of stressed bone. Zero delivered a defiant, but not very powerful, kick into the guard's gut.

The downed guard narrowed his eyes, but dominant even over the pain of his amputated limbs was a sort of frustrated curiosity. "How can you still be alive?" he asked. "Why don't your bones snap?" he tightened his grip further. Kaname watched the pulse of blood in growing bruises. The guard's eyes were as bright as a fresh kill. "Why don't you give up? You know I'm not human."

Kaname knew Zero wouldn't deign to reply, so he smoothly cleared his throat and waited until the guard's eyes flicked up to meet his. Kaname smiled, "Neither is he."

Zero kicked harder, but all the venom in his gaze was aimed at Kaname, who arched a mocking eyebrow. The guard let go with one hand and gripped Zero's leg. It was what the Hunter was waiting for. The joints in his arm now free to articulate, Zero bent his elbow bringing the rest of his body even closer to the guard. Close enough that he could grab his gun with his free hand. Close enough that the barrel of the Bloody Rose rested right on the guard's forehead between question filled eyes. Questions, it was immediately evident, that would never be answered.

The eruption of dust disrupted the leading edge of the mist, and Zero tossed his gun back to his right hand and leaped up to one of the encircling windows. On the opposite side of the room the largest guard slammed both arms against the wall, cracking the stone and shaking the whole structure. In the middle of reloading his rifle, shells jumped out of Yagari's fingers and fell toward the floor. In a flash of black and blond, Kaien dove after the falling bullets. In mid-flight he spun, snagging the bullets in his left hand, launching them in a tight group back toward Yagari, and continuing the spin to bring his sword to bear on the figure at the bottom of the wall. Both the male and female moved with all the speed of their kind, just as the wispy vapor rolled up to the wall.

Kaien slashed, the mistral force clearing a small patch of the floor. Kaien, tapped down with one foot and then bounded again up the wall, balancing on another window.

The two guards who had just escaped Kaien's attack were back on the dais. A slice of pie clearing devoid of the mist that now roiled thickly through the rest of the chamber was around the Volturi. Aro hadn't moved a hair's breadth from his position at the beginning of the fight, a mark of confident arrogance, Kaname assumed. Aro was, however, giving the larger female a reproachful look, as if she had failed in something. No one seemed to be even aware of Harker. He wasn't dead, Kaname could hear him inhale and see the slight movement of his breath. He stood stiffly, he blinked, his eyes shifted, but Kaname saw no comprehension in the gaze.

Yagari snapped the barrel of his rifle into place. Kaien pivoted against the wall. Zero aimed. The smallest bodyguard threw back her hood.

* * *

Johnathan blinked. At least he thought he did, but there wasn't any physical sensation to show that the action had taken place. He had failed. Plotted and lurked his way into the very lair of the beast, and he hadn't been able to kill the murderer. Afterward, he had failed again. Every one of the guards had abandoned their hold on him and bounded toward that tourist who had been able to do what he could not. He thought he was being given another chance. His gun had tracked back to his original target when everything was smothered.

Sight, sound, every sense had been sucked away, leaving him alone in darkness. The deep breath method wasn't having any success. He couldn't feel the relief from clean air, he couldn't even discern any action of inhaling. Was this death? Was the hope that had supported his heart a lie? Was this black emptiness where every soul would forever dwell?

No.

This wouldn't be how it ended. This wasn't what was waiting on the other side. His physical senses had been removed, but his thoughts still raced, he could still feel the flow of his emotions, and above all else, from the very core of his reaching soul, he knew he wasn't alone. Light was still in him...and the darkness still didn't understand it.

He was more than a physical being. His spirit ruled his body. Even if his body was lost, his will still thrived and could taste victory. He had been aiming at the creature's face. The body was only a shell, he was the master. It didn't matter that his flesh was blind, he was still the one who commanded it. All he had to do was pull the trigger. The master issued the command.

* * *

BANG

Johnathan Harker fired. For a second time Aro was hit in the face by a human weapon, and this time he was still cradling an arm wounded by a Hunter's gun. This time, the seal from the Hunter's weapon made the human bullet effective. Aro's smug face would, literally, never be seen again.

Every cry of malice or aggression that the guard had voiced before was nothing to the cacophony they now produced. Screeches like rent metal shook the very stones as the guard screamed their emotions. It was the perfect time for the Hunters to launch an attack.

The ground shook. The walls swayed, nearly dislodging the poised Hunters who had to scramble to keep from slipping off their windowsill perches. Again the floor shook, it's point of origin seeming to be just under the smallest of the guards. They swayed with the rest of the room's occupants, not at all in the manner of someone who was causing an earthquake. The stones lurched and ground together. Harker, in a stiff-legged stance that miraculously had yet to fall over, was right in the middle of it.

Feet skidding against the stone, Kaien released his hold and slid in a crouch down the wall. A few feet from the ground he launched himself across the chamber, on a direct course to intercept Harker. Kaien gripped the collar of the young man's coat in passing and jerked him clean off the floor. Together, they slammed into the opposite wall, the headmaster's boots mere inches from the debilitating mist. For a moment he scrabbled comically. Then he caught some indiscernible crevice with one foot and gracefully propelled himself and Johnathan to the window above.

The mist dripped off Johnathan in cottony wisps. He gasped, taking in the room and the new arrival of Cross Kaien. The headmaster was awkwardly trying to support Johnathan, hang onto the window, and keep from dropping his sword. He gave a tight smile to Johnathan's startled face.

"My heartiest congratulations on your completion of the demise of that particular nasty," said Kaien.

Johnathan's eyes lit up, and he drew a deep breath of unparalleled triumph. Yagari and Zero locked eyes from across the chamber. Zero found all the approval he'd been seeking for his part in Aro's destruction in the intense gaze of his master. Kaien's smile relaxed as Johnathan steadied himself at the window, freeing Kaien from supporting him.

"It was a shot of excellence," Kaien approved. "You won't mind sticking around to help us clean up the rest of the party?"

Johnathan's smile pulled his eyes to passionate slits. "I'd be only too delighted."

A shattering crack drew all eyes to the floor. Between the smallest of the Volturi guard, one of the stones of the floor was broken. Half of it was crookedly in place, the other had dropped out of sight to some unknown depths. From below, a hand gripped the side of the splintered stone.

The two small bodyguards scuttled back onto the dais. The hand flexed, tendons standing out against the knuckles, and the other half of the stone fell. It was only the first. With a shudder, more of the floor began to fall into the ever widening hole where the hand had reached out. Dust billowed up like smoke as the rumbling stopped. Gaping from the front half of the dais to the wall beside it, the broken floor took up a fourth of the room.

If there was ever a quintessential example, mused Kaname, the figure that emerged from the settling dust clouds was it. Tall, dark mustache and goatee, the being accosted the court with black eyes and cast back a corner of the red lined black cape he'd been wrapped in.

"You again!" Compiled with everything else that had happened that day, Caius was nearly hopping in rage.

"Caius!" The voice boomed and reached every corner of the chamber as the newest intruder flung back the other half of his cape and stood with his fists stationed on his hips. "I told you the boy Kenta was the concern of only my family. We will bear none of your interference or your continued attempts to kill him!"

"He knows too much!" screeched Caius.

"His knowledge is only of my family's kind. He hasn't an inkling something like you exists. You've made it clear that as long as you're around you will continue to try to silence him."

The largest bodyguard sprang into the hole, reaching down with a rumbling growl. The figure grabbed the bodyguard around both wrists, arresting his leap in mid-flight and driving him back to the ground. The guard struggled against the grip and bared his teeth. The figure looked at him impenetrably, then curled his lips just enough to show his fangs. "I'll have to make sure you're no longer a threat to my family."

"The new one?" Johnathan asked, looking at Kaien.

"We'll go by the enemy of my enemy is my friend principle until further notice," grinned Kaien.

The little guard's disabling fog still lingered on the intact portion of the floor. The smallest male had lost contact with it though, and it was visibly diminishing. That wouldn't last if the guard stuck around.

Again, Kaien's expression cooled and his face became set. "Wish me luck," he said to Johnathan, and then he was gone.

The floor was still hazardous, so Kaien took off towards the dais at a diagonal slant on the wall. The tiny female, malice marking her remaining features, turned toward him. Kaien planted his feet briefly and jumped off the wall, not down, but up towards the ceiling. He twisted so that he hit feet first, and instantly launched himself down. Right towards the small male. The broken faced one looked up.

Kaien shuddered in his dive, destroying his trajectory. Instead of coming down in line to dispatch the male, he hurtled past into the Volturi's newest architectural addition. The newcomer detaining the largest bodyguard stepped to the side to avoid a collision. The bodyguard wasn't riding the same train of thought. Kaien crashed into the guard.

Zero and Yagari both fired on the dagger eyed female, but she was ready. She dropped flat to the ground, dragging her small companion with her, insuring they were both clear. Rolling onto her side, her left eye searched for a target. She didn't find one. The moment they'd fired, the Hunters had both relocated to different parts of the wall.

Down in the pit that had taken up a large portion of the courtroom, the settling debris was split and cleared as a blade sang through the air. The large guard jumped back from the crouching headmaster, a shallow cut on his thigh leaving a trail of dust like smoky ash. The guard landed on the wall above the level of the hole, his fingers sank into the stone, digging his own handhold.

Kaien held his stance, left hand braced on the ground, sword extended to the side in his right hand. However his eyes did look a tad less piercing as he met the serious gaze of the one who had taken the subterranean approach to the Volturi court.

"Judging by your actions so far, I'd say we share a common goal," intoned Kaien.

The black eyed figure looked at Kaien steadily then turned to where the injured guard had vaulted to a new handhold to avoid the circling Hunters. He looked contemplatively back at Kaien and said, "I suppose we do." He swept a corner of his cape to the side and bowed from the waist. "Henry Marker, at your service."

Kaien stood with a hint of a smile and touched his black sword to his forehead in salute, "Cross Kaien, at yours."

Zero's gun clicked on an empty round. Keeping his eyes on the fight, he let the empty magazine drop to the floor as he reached for the replacement. Even a moment of vulnerability drew danger. The smallest guard swiveled, Zero leaped to a new location, but reloading his weapon was slowing him down. As he touched down on his new perch, the little female landed in front of him, looking into his eyes.

Zero inhaled in a sharp hiss. In a mixture of pain and an attempt to escape the guard's line of sight, Zero let go of his hold and slipped down. The female latched onto the stonework with one hand and with the other snatched Zero by the neck. He twitched as she raised him to her burning eyes and squeezed.

The smallest bodyguard's head exploded. Rifle smoking, Yagari glared with subdued satisfaction at where the guard had disintegrated. Kaname peered at the Hunter's face. Yagari regarded Zero with veiled concern as his apprentice shakily grasped the window before he could fall.

A shriek and a wail rose from the floor of the chamber, twisting together into one shattering cry. The small male seemed to have forgotten about the new cloud of oblivion he'd been concocting, it had stopped its spread, one edge only just starting to curl into the pit that Henry Marker had created. His eyes were savagely locked on Yagari. The Hunter wasn't paying attention to him. The female hadn't waited to express emotion before taking action. Hands outstretched, shriek still streaming from her lips, she collided with Yagari and bore him down from his high seat. Yagari and the female crashed to the ground, the Hunter's weapon clattering to the side and out of reach. Large and small, the two males turned towards the scene, intent on taking part in the destruction. They never got there.

The small one gave a bound, clearing the fog he had created. At the crest of his leap, a flashing arc intersected his body. From below, Kaien had leaped to the wall behind the little guard, pivoted, and jumped forward to slice through the male. The body blew apart on either side of the cut, almost like two splashes of water from a stick thrown into a puddle. Kaien dove through the scattering dust. Reaching down with his free hand, he pushed off the floor and flipped himself to his feet, landing where the first mist had finally dissipated.

The large male had launched himself from his hold on the wall towards the fight between the female and Yagari. A few feet from his goal, he was literally pulled up short. Henry Marker tightened his grip on the guard's leg and then flung him towards the wall furthest from Yagari. The guard slammed into the wall, his impact cratering the stone, but he dropped to the floor in a crouch and leaped back toward Henry. Marker met him halfway. Their hands locked, both of them straining to overpower the other. The bodyguard's feet skated back, taking them into one of the sunlit beams falling into the chamber. The guard's skin sparkled, Henry's smoked.

The bodyguard glanced at Henry's smoldering skin. He set his feet, seeming determined to keep his opponent in the light. Almost impossibly, Henry's eyes looked even blacker in sunlight. His depth-less stare bore into the bleeding color of the Volturi guard's eyes, then he tightened his hold. A cry and a crack broke through the room. The guard snatched back hands that bore a spiderweb of fine fissures. Henry grabbed the guard by the throat. In one motion, he lifted the guard and slammed him, neck first, back into the ground. A sharp snap filled the chamber and Henry's hand was flat on the floor. The guard broke apart, his dust settling onto the floor. Only then did Henry step back into the shadows.

Yagari had landed with the screaming female on top of him digging her knees uncomfortably into his ribs, her hands scrabbling to tear at his throat, which he had his forearms crossed over defensively. Yagari trapped one of her legs with his own and flipped over, landing the guard on her back and allowing him to spring away from her. Not in the direction of his gun unfortunately.

"You can't!" the guard screeched.

It wasn't a comment worth answering.

"You can't!" said the guard again, diving towards him. Yagari ducked and rolled. The guard skittered between him and his weapon speaking raggedly, "I can destroy the emotions that hold people together, make them betray their allies! You can't still be working together! You can't!"

Yagari's eyes seemed to narrow and widen at the same time, as if a shadowed day had suddenly become clear. "Yes," he acknowledged. "You can, but love is more than an emotion."

She snarled, like he'd insulted her, and jumped for his throat. He dropped back, but instead of dodging he threw a fist upwards, catching her under the jaw in an uppercut. "It's an act of will," he said as her body clattered to the floor. He ran for his gun, sweeping it up with one hand, and wheeling back toward her. She wasn't there. He turned quickly, just in time for her to grab the rifle and slam him against the wall.

The rifle was lengthwise across his chest, aimed at nothing that would do him any good to fire at, and she was too close to kick. Her breath rasped, and she showed her teeth. His gaze was steel, "Nothing could make me decide to stop loving my apprentice."

The guard's last expression was one of hateful wonder. Yagari closed his eyes briefly to shield them from the dust that was blown into his face. When he opened them he saw Zero; standing at the base of the wall on the other side of the chamber, his gun steady in his hand. Apparently, he'd been able to reload it.

As members of the court had dropped away, Marcus hadn't stirred. His face looking more internally absorbed, less concerned with his surroundings with every explosion of dust. At last, he seemed to realize that someone was waiting for him. Slowly, his filmed eyes came back into focus and he looked at the black clad figure before him. Cross Kaien stood there, his form poised and ready, his face almost comforting in its utter calmness. Marcus' expression altered. No longer slack with boredom, his features were relaxed. His eyes looked into those before his as his focus settled with silent confidence. His face didn't change as Kaien ran him through.

There was only one left. Occasions for swiftness hadn't been heavily represented in Caius' life. The speed with which he moved now didn't attest to it. Flying over the decimated remains of the fallen, Caius was making for the broken floor. The means of Henry Marker's assault would be Caius' escape. A shot was heard round the room. At the brink of the pit Caius faltered, his body jerking back from the impact of a bullet.

Johnthan Harker stood in the window above the pit. At the start of the shoot and scurry runaround that Zero and Yagari had initiated, he'd seemed to realize it was moving at a speed he couldn't compete with, and Johnathan had swung himself out the window and onto the exterior of the building. He'd scaled whatever handholds existed in the masonry to the other side of the chamber, and been ready with a loaded Winchester for the moment he would be effective.

Caius had only been stalled for an instant, but it was enough. Henry Marker, cape swirling, was planted between Caius and his escape route. Caius made to dodge to the side, but Kaien was already waiting on that path. Caius hesitated, and Henry Marker's arms closed and circled around Caius' head; one hand gripped his forehead, the other clamped around his jaw. His voice rose, but Henry interrupted, "Goodbye, Caius."

Henry twisted, Kaien slashed, and Caius turned to dust that sifted through Henry's hands.

Yagari Toga reached inside his coat, extracting a tin flask. "Let's make sure we never have to come to back," he said as he liberally spilled the flask's contents on every pile of dust in the room, connecting them all in a web of alcohol. He took a last drag, then tossed his slow burning cigarette onto the floor. Fire whooshed around the room; a foul smoke curled toward the ceiling where it drained out the windows.

Johnathan jumped sideways, toward a window that wasn't above a yawning hole in the floor. He caught the bottom of the window with one hand, steadied himself against the wall for a moment, then dropped to the floor below. His legs bent to absorb the impact.

Alcohol fires burn fast and hot. With a smoldering crackle, the last of the flames burnt themselves out. Scorches and ash marked the floor.

Kaname surveyed the ravaged remains of the court. He hadn't had to do anything. He nodded. "Just as I planned."

Zero snorted.

* * *

A/N: If anything, I feel like the Volturi lasted too long against the other characters. However, I wanted to write something that was more than a page long. Also, I encourage all readers to practice healthier habits than Yagari and refrain from smoking. Re-posted when I noticed a superfluous 'to' in the text.

From "Twilight"

Aro, Caius, Marcus, Jane, Alec, Felix, Demetri, Heidi, Chelsea, Renata

From "Vampire Knight"

Kuran Kaname, Kiryuu Zero, Cross Kaien, Yagari Toga

From "Chibi Vampire"

Henry Marker

From "Dracula"

Johnathan Harker


End file.
